Data centres back in the spotlight-using 18% of total power consumption of the country

But it was found to be the case, and other than headlines for a week it made no difference.

Where I work they have been putting together a team to exploit AI technology. There are currently 5 guys on it and the plan is to have 10. The guys hired so far none is on less than €200k a year.

So you're in total agreement with the other 5 points I made, then, seeing as you failed to counter them in any meaningful way?

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and another crowd called Equinix are the top 5 in the world for DCs. All from the US and all pretty much infamous for dealing in English primarily. If you don't think the education and preferred language status of the employees is a concern, you're mistaken.

I know for a fact that it is a rule in the AWS centres outside Paris, for example, that all employees speak decent English before being hired.

But the ongoing grid connection fees &  transmission use of system charges do...

The engineers working on AWS primarily do not work in datacenters!

Datacenters are designed to have as few staff as possible, these are basically just giant server rooms with cooling and networking.

Wanting high educated or English speaking staff is a factor for R&D, not datacenters.

Source on this claim?

It does matter what Eamon thinks, hopes and wants, particularly as he is the Minister for Environment and Climate and Communications -

Green Party leader and Minister for Environment and Climate Eamon Ryan said Government will “work with” data centres but that they will be expected to live within their overarching carbon budgets.

“The data centres are a really important and beneficial sector for our country. We have a huge advantage by having them here in terms of the digital industries that are based here that come with it. But they know, and they agree, that they are on decarbonisation plans. We can deliver the clean electricity that will give them a sustainable future here, but we can’t break the climate budget in the meantime, so we do have to make sure that they fit within it rather than blowing it.”

“There are ways we can do this, and we will get it right and work with these data centres rather than what some of the opposition do which is just blame them. That doesn’t work. You sit down with people, and you work collaboratively towards a low-carbon future.”

What a difference a year makes 😁

https://archive.ph/ArcTg

Nope, not what I said, but if the domestic demand for dairy is there, why export it?

So where does he say he no longer supports Eirgrid and wants the moratorium lifted?

Anyway, highlighting politician waffle is pointless.

You need to cut through it and get to the pertinent part.

"We can’t just keep providing for additional data centres and not have the power available,"

Again it's just basic maths.

The likes of Eamon wants the debate to be datacentre bad V datacentre good.

Of course it's the wrong argument.

Unfortunately the building of data centres is mired in all sorts of political issues, not solely limited to the idea of the amount of electricity they consume. There are all sorts of infrastructure and planning issues to be addressed besides just having access to a fibre network -

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ireland-government-in-dispute-with-limerick-council-over-data-center-zoning/

And EirGrid appears to be holding firm on their commitment to making it difficult for any new Datacentres to be built in Dublin -

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/eirgrid-says-no-new-applications-for-data-centers-in-dublin-till-2028/

That’s needlessly pedantic? I didn’t say he no longer supports EirGrid and wants a moratorium lifted. I said that he is against the idea of a moratorium, which is being suggested by Opposition parties, until the Government has a strategic review around data centres -

Social Democrats TD and spokeswoman for climate Jennifer Whitmore said the data centres’ energy consumption figures are “extraordinary.”

“What needs to happen is a moratorium on the granting and connection of data centres until the Government has a strategic review around data centres. This would need to look at how they can be more efficient. There is no real oversight on this, which is a difficulty. There are a number of centres being constructed and a number with planning permission who perhaps don’t have grid access yet. We need to know how many are enough, and what is our limit.”

Eamon doesn’t want the debate to be around datacentre bad v datacentre good at all, because he’s already convinced of their benefits to the Irish economy. What some politicians in Opposition want, is to paint Datacentres as bad, because they’re using up too much electricity! Tongue firmly in cheek when I say this but that shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone - Datacentres consume massive amounts of electricity needed not just to power the servers, but also to keep them from overheating.

Basic math requires pretending that the national grid can’t possibly be made more efficient, and is also predicated on the assumption that energy consumption will remain constant, when even a cursory glance at trends in the data reveals that energy consumption is increasing. It’ll be required to increase even more if Government ever gets the finger out and increases construction to meet other targets it’s set for itself by 2040 such as the provision of new schools and housing.

But yes, let’s focus on Datacentres because they’re using up all the electricity and there’s none for anyone else 🤨

Politicians and nimbyism is the problem there, not Ireland as a location. Where, as pointed out, we've a bland climate, ver little risk of natural disasters and competent people to build and run them.

I'll give you energy security. One of the biggest issues there is the Green Party and associated eNGOs who between them have closed power plants, failed to deliver offshore wind, failed to get mass adoption of solar (though improving), whinge about iterconnectors for fear of using nuclear generated electricity, prevent Barryroe from progressing and prevent any LNG terminals benig built.

That’s needlessly pedantic? I didn’t say he no longer supports EirGrid and wants a moratorium lifted. I said that he is against the idea of a moratorium,

You said he didn't support the idea of a moratorium.

2022

Ireland is currently in a ''very tight situation' regarding electricity supply, and Eirgrid is ''absolutely right'' not to take new applications from data centers.

Yesterday

"We can’t just keep providing for additional data centres and not have the power available,"

He supports the idea because he has no choice.

The rest is absolute waffle.

The real argument should be if this was highlighted a decade ago and these things are extremely important to the sector and our economy then why can't we build more of them and whose fault is that?

Cost of generation is not fully - as the state subsidises generators through various schemes such as RESS auction prices